Government cracks whip on rogue accountants

Interior CS Fred Matiang’i. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

Eighteen parastatal accountants will be prosecuted and charged over their fraudulent practices, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has said.

 This is in a bid to scale the war on corruption, as some accountants are being implicated in the loss of billions of shillings in government offices.

“You can imagine that close to Sh6 billion cannot be traced since I took office and these funds have been looted at different levels of government,” Matiang’i revealed during the 39th annual seminar of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) in Mombasa.

He at the same time tasked the accountants to be in the front line in guarding public funds that end up being looted by government officials both at the national and county levels.

“We okay dishing out of tenders to contractors who end up doing nothing and to make it worse…they go scot-free. We all have a duty to preserve and protect public funds right from our desks” the CS said.

Matiang’i who also chairs the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee (NDICC), cried foul over hundreds of stalled State projects due to misuse of public funds adding that the government will not hesitate to arrest and prosecute the culprits.

“Most of those projects cannot be implemented because they have been hampered by contractors who do shoddy jobs and end up pocketing cash they don’t deserve,” said Matiang’i.

Also in attendance were Principal Secretary of the National Treasury Julius Muia, Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang'o, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, and other professional bodies from both the public and private sectors.